Religious Hospitals Could Curb Aid in Dying (AID) Options

In 1994, Oregon was the first state in the country to legalize physician-assisted death, by passing via voter approval the Death with Dignity Act. Similar Acts have passed in Washington and Vermont. In these states the doctor writes a prescription for the drugs. The terminally ill patient then administers the drugs themselves. Recently, Brittnay Maynard was in the news regarding her decision to move to Oregon to receive AID.

Larissa Lee, has recently published a paper via SSRN’s working paper series titled: “Let the Hospital’s Conscience Be Your Guide: How Institutional Policies are Eroding ‘Death with Dignity” which explores how the concept of AID can be eroded in fact by the large number of religiously affiliated acute care hospitals in an area. Lee points out that in “Washington [State], one report estimated that acute-care Catholic hospitals could soon reach as high as 44 percent of the total hospitals in the state, with a number of proposed mergers reaching completion. If all of the planned mergers go through, then ten out of 39 counties in Washington will have exclusively Catholic hospitals.”